President of WIT speaks about the dearth of women drivers in the industry

On September 18, Ellen Voie, president of Women in Trucking, an organization for the empowerment of women truckers, spoke about the importance of women drivers in the trucking industry at the McLeod Software User Conference. According to statistics, only 7% of truck drivers in the industry are women. Voie attributes this dearth to a lack of understanding about the industry as a whole. She went on to elaborate on the importance of the industry in supporting families and bringing to the public goods such as fuel which they use daily. She also emphasized that effort to balance the workforce may help to mitigate the current driver shortage in the industry. Voie said that most women are introduced to the industry by a male family member and if it were not for this, the number of women in the industry may be even lesser. She stressed the importance of extending recruiting campaigns to reach out to women. She also advised trucking advertising campaigns to broaden their target audience so that they include women instead of just catering to male drivers.
Currently, WIT is in the process of setting up an online platform, where women interested in trucking can interact. The platform enables women truckers to be mentored by other experienced truckers. The association will also be publishing a guide for best practices. The guide was based on a study of the carriers with a large number of female drivers.